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Seattle Parks places 25-foot ban on smoking in all city parks  

Just one day after Seattle Parks and Recreation Superintendent Tim Gallagher’s Feb. 17 announcement that he decided to ban all smoking in all Seattle parks, despite other recommendations from the Board of Park Commissioners, he announced he would “relax the rule.”

Therefore, as of April 1, smoking, chewing, or other tobacco use is banned within 25 feet of other park patrons and in play areas, beaches, or playgrounds. Gallagher tweaked the new municipal code of conduct while on vacation skiing in Oregon. He said in a press release that his decision change was due to “public input.”

The West Seattle Herald asked smokers and former smokers for their input on the new ban.

“I smoke a pack a day,” said Will Gurkey, 41, who was taking a lunchtime cigarette break on a lawn area of a West Seattle office complex just off Delridge where he works.

“Smokers are generally pretty nice people and we try very hard not to offend anyone,” he said. “We grumbled about moving 25 feet from doors to smoke outside. But we were like, ‘O.K.’ I’m pretty neat about discarding cigarette butts.

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LETTERS: Parks back-and-forth smoking ban  

Pittsburg group continues smoking-regulation effort 

Almost exactly a year ago, a small group of residents asked the City Commission to consider a ban on smoking in public places -- restaurants, bars and the like.

Commissioners opted to table the issue, citing a chance that the Kansas Legislature might take it up this session.

It has, but advocates of a statewide ban -- including members of Clean Air Kansas -- have criticized a bill the Senate has passed and advanced to the House because it would prohibit local communities from having smoking bans that are stricter than the statewide law.

None of that is deterring the Pittsburg group, which plans to renew its request during Tuesday's meeting of the City Commission. Clean Air Pittsburg says it now represents more than 500 local residents.

"I am not one who wants more rules or regulations, but I also want to breathe clean air," said Pittsburg native Gina Pinamonti, one of the group's active voices.

Next month, she will be able to do so at Chatters, a popular local eatery and bar that is joining the list of smoke-free establishments

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Cleona teen gets state pen for pair of cigarette thefts 

A Cleona boy with a lengthy juvenile criminal record has been sentenced to state prison for twice breaking into a grocery store and stealing cigarettes.

Justin C. Oliver, 17, of 801 E. Pine St. was sentenced last week to one to two years and fined $300 for two counts of burglary and one of drug-paraphernalia possession.

Oliver broke into Country Cupboard grocery store in North Lebanon Township on Sept. 13 and 16 and took more than $1,200 worth of cigarettes. He told police he sold some of the cigarettes and smoked some of them.

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HARVEY: How Mayor Bloomberg’s Anti-Smoking Crackdown Hurts Those It Claims to Help 

Last month, ostensibly to protect that barkeep and his brethren, the administration moved to shut down five bustling downtown clubs because of smoking violations. But according to one owner of the club M2, which faces closure, inspectors had never been to his establishment before a December 31 Times article about nightspots that were ignoring the ban. Neither has the city ever before pursued forced closings as a smoking-law enforcement strategy. . . .

But tight door policies prevent health inspectors from consistently entering some of the upscale venues like Goldbar that were featured in the article; instead they've targeted larger, more accessible clubs like M2. After the story, Morrissey says, city officials hung around "every night we were open for two weeks." (Daily Intel has asked the Health Department and mayor's office to comment on Morrissey's version of the timeline, and will let you know if they respond.) Now its 300 employees may be out on the street.

Given the more serious violations that big clubs have survived in the past -- from drug raids to liquor-license issues to the West Side Highway murder of Jennifer Moore -- it would be odd if cigarette smoke finally did M2 in. . . .

Why not ticket the smokers themselves? Sure, it wouldn't be a grand gesture like shutting down a massive club -- but it might solve the problem without hurting the people the mayor claims he was concerned about in the first place.

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Finance Ministry to clamp down on cigarette smuggling 

According to information from the Anatolia news agency gathered from anonymous sources in the Revenues Administration (GÄ°B), tax auditors will focus more on alcoholic beverages and tobacco products this year to fight smuggling. To achieve this goal a new directorate, named the Contraband Products Tracking Directorate will be established and special auditing teams will be created.

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• EDITORIAL: Call for debate on smoking 

Recently Japan Tobacco Inc. (JT) and the state were successful in their defense against a damages suit in which three people had sought ¥10 million each for health problems -- cancer and pulmonary emphysema -- allegedly caused by smoking. Still, the Jan. 20 Yokohama District Court ruling, which the plaintiffs appealed Feb. 1, includes points that JT and the government should seriously consider.

The ruling covered the period from 1947 to 1993, when the three smoked. (One is already dead.) Dismissing the compensation requests, the ruling said it is difficult to conclude that JT was aware during that period that an unspecified large number of people would suffer from tobacco-related diseases and die.

It cited facts advantageous to JT . . .

The court almost acknowledged illegality on the part of JT. It said the fact that the company continued production and sale of tobacco products while aware that smoking causes health problems and dependence cannot help being considered a factor in building the foundation of a case for illegality.

The ruling's additional statement says the public should discuss what to do about tobacco production and sales, and that the Diet should make a final decision on the matter after taking into consideration the fact that knowledge of smoking's effects has deepened and policy measures to promote public health have progressed since 1993.

The government has decided to raise the tobacco tax and abolish the tobacco business law. It and the Diet should quickly act in the belief that reducing smoking will improve people's health and thus help cut the nation's medical expenses.

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• Taiwan to include tobacco in film rating scheme 

Taiwan is planning to change its movie rating system to take account of characters who smoke, the government said Saturday, as part of a bid to reduce the number of youngsters taking up the habit.

The Department of Health wants to make tobacco use one of the criteria for deciding what age rating to give a film, a move that could mean some animated movies are out of bounds for children.

"Smoking (in movies) has a much worse impact on health than sex and violence," the department said in a statement posted on its website.

It cited a popular Japanese cartoon series, One Piece, where the main characters smoke frequently, providing "a bad example for children".

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Knack singer, battling cancer, ponders mortality  

In 1979, Doug Fieger played rhythm guitar in a band called the Knack and sang a song called "My Sharona" that stayed at No. 1 for six weeks. More recently he's been a cancer patient, lung and brain and beyond, pondering questions of mortality while not quite admitting to a stranger how personal the thoughts have become. . . .

He'd had a piece of a lung removed two years earlier and considered his problem solved. Twenty-two brain tumors later, it still isn't.

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Doug Fieger of The Knack dies at 57 of metastatic lung cancer  

On one particular night, I heard a song called "My Sharona" by an L.A. power pop band called The Knack. . . .

The lead singer of the band was a well-known musician in southern California named Doug Fieger. He was originally from Oak Park, Michigan, and played in a bunch of bands before fronting The Knack. . . .

Yes, I'm reaching the age where my musical idols are dying of non-drug causes. Then, last month, The Detroit News published this article about Doug Fieger's battle with lung cancer and the aggressive metastases to in his brain. Fieger was one of the [60%] 10-20% of lung cancer patients who either never smoked or quit smoking decades before. . . .

Cigarette tax hike draws fire 

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids describes a $1 tax increase on cigarettes as a win-win-win scenario - a win for states' budgets, a win for health care and a political win.

According to a recent news release, raising West Virginia's tax on cigarettes by $1 from the current 55 cents would generate an additional $117.6 million annually, "keep 19,100 kids from becoming addicted smokers" and save about $475 million in health care costs over the short and long term.

While a national poll found 67 percent of voters of all stripes support a $1 tobacco tax increase, according to Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, West Virginia legislators from the tri-county are split on the proposal.

The Journal surveyed via e-mail the eight state delegates and four state senators representing Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties. Of those who responded, five opposed the tax increase and three did not.

The Journal asked, "What do you think about raising the tax on cigarettes by $1, and do you think such a proposal would have any chance of passage in the West Virginia Legislature?"

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Discarded cigarette caused blaze at Atherton Woods  

A $250,000 fire at the Atherton Woods apartment complex Thursday afternoon was caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette that ignited combustible materials on a second-floor balcony, officials said Friday evening.

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Minor stealing cigarette sentenced to seven years  

A minor was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison on charges of stealing a packet of cigarettes, daily Milliyet reported Sunday.

A letter sent by the 13-year-old, identified only by his initials O.G., to a member of the Parliamentary Human Rights Inspection Commission revealed that the minor has been in a prison in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri for two years now.

Ali Rıza Ertemur, a member of the commission, said they would follow the case and that O.G.'s files have been waiting at the Supreme Court of Appeals for two years.

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Couldn't wait? Kate Moss smokes a cigarette out car window... then in fashion show  

They may have banned smoking in the workplace, but the message seems to have passed Kate Moss by.

The supermodel lit up in her chauffeur driven car as she arrived for a show on the first day of London Fashion Week yesterday.

She then sparked another cigarette backstage at the Hakaan show.

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Bay Watch: Stick that in your obsolete smoking device and smoke it! 

Today is International Pipe Smoking Day, a day briar-loving brethren the world over will puff proudly from their increasingly obsolete utensils -- and a day that means squat to local tobacco sellers.

The once-rich tradition of smoking from a pipe "has really tailed off," says Greg McNair, owner of Coquille Smoke Shop, 399 North Central St.

McNair doesn't carry pipes, though he special orders pipe tobacco for the roll-your-own crowd.

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